Some business groups are among those urging the governor to sign a bill with an error that could reinstate sales taxes on prescription drugs. They say passage of the flawed bill is not the fault of the legislature.
Associated Industries of Missouri and the state Chamber of Commerce have joined Senate Sponsor Will Krause in urging Governor Nixon to sign the bill, although Nixon says it will impose a 200-million dollar tax increase of people taking prescription drugs. The problem is with a technical mistake in the way part of the bill is written. A misplaced bracket makes that part of the bill eliminate the prescription drug sales tax exemption.
Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Tracy King puts the blame entirely with the Department of Revenue, which wrote the language that was put on six bills. But lawmakers never picked up on the error during four months of consideration of the legislation. “The legislators could not have known that there was a problem unless they were told,” she says.
Kraus says the Revenue Department assured him and others that there was no problem with the wording. Nixon has not said he’s going to veto the bill. It does contain some things he asked for this year, most notably a system of collecting sales taxes on internet sales and a tax amnesty plan. Backers of the bill say the erroneous section involved not go into effect until 20-15, so he should sign the bill and let the legislature correct the wording next year